Hydro Thunder HurricaneReview

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Someone Get Me Off This Boat.

By Arthur Gies

Hydro Thunder was one of the great, colorful arcade games of the late 90s. Powered by the rush of blasting through levels 30 seconds at a time, Hydro Thunder was brightly addictive and technically impressive. It would seem though that new developers Vector Unit missed the boat, so to speak; in an apparent attempt to modernize the series with Hydro Thunder Hurricane for XBLA, they've succeeded only in bogging the arcade racer down with tired genre conventions the series didn't need, robbing the game of much of its original appeal.

More Hydro Thunder Hurricane Info Hydro Thunder was a colorful, saturated game, so it's a little strange that Hydro Thunder Hurricane seems so... muted. Environments lack much detail and are full of often ugly scenery, and for "crazy" environments like Monster Island or a Viking-inspired channel, things are kind of dull. Sure, there are sea monsters and what I imagine were supposed to be "siiiiick" jumps aplenty, but they fail to make much of an impression in the muddy mess of Hydro Thunder Hurricane's visuals. The sound is even more disappointing, as forgettable music and an obnoxious announcer are paired with sound effects straight from 1994 - I'm pretty sure I heard the noise that gate made while it was opening in the original Doom.

Like its predecessor, Hydro Thunder Hurricane is more twitch reflexes than thoughtful racing. The game takes place on 8 different courses with a number of different boats, which are unlocked by winning races in three different events. Races are simple affairs pitting you against 15 other rocket-boats to see who can finish first; Ring Master events require you to finish a course by your lonesome while plowing through colored rings, while Gauntlet events are time trials on courses littered with explosive barrels. Every event really comes down to managing boosts and jumps - some boats are actually better in the air, for example - while avoiding environmental hazards.

At least, that's what I think the game is supposed to be about. Too often, races come down to figuring out where you're supposed to be going. The drab and visually muddied courses are more confusing than they should be - you'll likely be hitting the back button more than you'd like to reset your boat on the path where you need to be, while sacrificing valuable seconds. Hydro Thunder Hurricane features a touchy physics system that will frequently send your boat flying uncontrollably away from where you want to be, through weather or sea monsters or other bizarre hazards.

The main problem with Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a sense of speed, or the lack thereof. The boats don't feel fast, even while boosting, and races that used to be excitingly brief can now take more than 5 minutes at a time. I got the impression that Vector Unit made the courses long to avoid complaints of brevity, and ruined the pacing in the process.

For some though, the appeal may lie in Hurricane's multiplayer. Vector Unit should be commended for not only implementing four-player split-screen play locally, but also enabling four players on one system to go online against other players. It's a player friendly decision that has all but disappeared these days - it's too bad the underlying mechanical problems of overly capricious physics and clunkily maneuvering watercraft remain as much of a problem with others as they are alone.

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The Verdict

Between uninspired references to the original game and its reliance on aged arcade racer elements, Hydro Thunder Hurricane is a dull, monotonous experience that shows its hand early and fails to deliver on its pedigree. In the loaded Summer of Arcade, Hurricane will likely prove to be little more than a tropical depression.